1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a media cartridge autoloader.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical media cartridge autoloader includes a media cartridge picker in the center, a mail slot at the front side, a read/write media drive at the rear side, and media cartridge transport magazines disposed one at each lateral side.
The media cartridge picker is configured to transport a media cartridge among the mail slot, the media drive, and the media cartridge transport magazines.
The media cartridge autoloader is ejected according to an eject instruction so that a part of the media cartridge protrudes outside of the mail slot. After that, an operator grabs the media cartridge and pulls it out.
After the operator grabs the media cartridge and pulls it out, a door is closed and locked so that the operator cannot reinsert the media cartridge unnecessarily. The media cartridge autoloader can include a stopper mechanism that inhibits the media cartridge from being reinserted.
A plurality of different types of media cartridges for use in the above described media cartridge autoloader are now available commercially. Accordingly, for a maker manufacturing the media cartridge autoloader, it is desirable to produce a first media cartridge autoloader corresponding to the first media cartridge, and a second media cartridge autoloader corresponding to the second media cartridge.
In this case, as for the stopper mechanism described above, it is important to attempt to share the parts as much as possible to keep the manufacturing cost of the media cartridge autoloader low.